Academics

The Herbarium

San Juan College has the largest herbarium in the Four Corners region, with about 50,000 specimens. Housed in the West Classroom Complex, the Herbarium is a library of pressed plants which may be consulted for identification purposes by environmental survey companies, allergy specialists, botanical researchers and many others interested in plants of the Four Corners and the greater Southwest. It is an important database of information about plants in the environment.

Herbarium operations are directed by Kenneth D. Heil; Professor Emeritus of Biology/Geology, founder of the Herbarium and Adjunct Professor of Biology. Ken has been a major contributor to the collection. Other important collections include the Arnold Clifford Collection, primarily from the Navajo Nation, and the Vasey Collection, from the John Wesley Powell expedition.

Plant specimens are traded with other botanical institutions, such as University of Northern Iowa, Brigham Young University, New Mexico State University, University of New Mexico, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and many others.

For information about the Herbarium, call (505) 566-3244.

The San Juan College Plant Room

The Plant Room is currently under renovation. A new attraction is coming by the summer of 2013.

The San Juan College Plant Room is a greenhouse-like structure located adjacent to the Atrium Lobby area in the West Classroom Complex. It, along with the Atrium Lobby, serves as a classroom resource for biology, geology and art classes as well as a popular study.

Many ferns, bromeliads, orchids and other tropical plants are grown and propagated in the Plant Room. Tropical flowering trees and primitive plants, such as tree ferns, whisk ferns, ginkgoes and cycads are also available for classroom study and use. Several fish tanks provide self-sustaining microscopic algae and invertebrates, such as snails, rotifers, amoebas, paramecia, nematodes and planarians. Other tanks and pots grow plants for cellular study and plant anatomy labs. Another focus is economically important tropical plants, including lemons, coffee, avocado, papaya, cardamom, and many others. The environment of the Plant Room is primarily cool tropical-subtropical.

Contact Linda Mary Reeves, supervisor of the Plant Room, for more information at (505) 566-3244.

For more information about the Herbarium, please call Dr. Ken Heil Herbarium Curator at (505) 566-3358. Or send an email to heilk@sanjuancollege.edu.